Coke vs. Pepsi. Crest vs. Colgate. HD DVD vs. Blu Ray. Sega vs. Nintendo. There’s a new rivalry in town: The Snuggie vs. The Slanket.

For the past few months, The Snuggie had an easy run. No competition, a catchy name and even a deal clincher with every purchase, a free book light. But now there’s trouble in the sleeved blanket market. A new kid on the block backed by the marketing powerhouse that is QVC, The Slanket (a clever combination of “Sleeved Blanket”) and by the looks of it they’re ready for a fight to the death.

With QVC entering the sleeved blanket marketplace, the stage is set for an exciting 2009 as both brands will duke it in what is sure to be an ugly, months long battle royale. The Snuggie currently offers a tremendous buy one, get one free offer and an included free book light for the low price of $19.99 plus $7.95 shipping handling for each Snuggie. It’s obvious that The Snuggie means business with the free tie in and the extra Snuggie thrown in for free (well, not so free if you count the $7.95 for shipping and handling what I’m sure is a very soft and fluffy sleeved blanket).

The Slanket, which claims to have been invented in back in the day in 1998, is offered in 11 beautiful colours (like Apricot, Moss Green, Ruby Green, Castlerock, and a colour by the name of Texas Tea?!), claims more inventive uses, is so big that it can fit “almost anyone,” and has an introductory price of $29.96 (at least on the QVC website). But, there’s no buy one get one free offer or freebie tie in, which makes The Snuggie the winner based solely on price. Maybe higher price for The Slanket can be attributed to a higher thread count or because it’s manufactured in America. Based solely on price there’s a tough fight ahead for The Slanket. A “big mountain to climb” if you will.

But, at least it’s a good time to be in the sleeved blanket business. Whoever wins this epic battle will be sitting on a giant pile of cash to come up with the next Shamwow!. As the American (and world) economy continues to tank and people wanting to save on their heating bills (and all bills in general) as a result it’s a good time to be selling something that’s going to keep America warm, productive and comfortable. It’s the American way!

Decide for yourself who will come out on top in 2009. Check out the commercials below.

Here’s The Snuggie in all its glory:

And, here’s the new kid on the block, The Slanket:

iPhone CDMA

Thats right, you didn’t read wrong. I said iPhone CDMA. It does almost everything the iPhone 3G does and it’s cheaper, has twice the space and I can send mass text messages.

This is me giving the finger to Rogers for their ridiculous iPhone plans. Lets backtrack to January 2008 for a minute.

Once upon a time, when iPhones were only available in the States, I pre-ordered an iPod Touch. It was a great piece of technology. I said ‘was’ because it disappeared a few months later. After mourning the loss of my beloved device I began searching for an imported iPhone. After giving up in light of the crazy-high prices on eBay I waited patiently for the iPhone to officially come to Canada.

The iPhone came to Canada, but not without a steep price. I weighed my options, fork over my hard earned cash for this sweet sweet phone or carry on with my Bell Mobility contract for a few more years and feel like a little part of me is missing.

Around this time is when it hit me, the iPod that I had once lost would have been able to function almost the same as the iPhone (minus all the phone and GPS goodness). The next day I headed over to my local Apple store and picked up an iPod Touch 32 GB. That night I had my fun downloading and rampaging the App store and damn was it ever worth it.

Now I carry with me my trusty Samsung SPH-A860 in one pocket and my iPod Touch in the other. It covers everything I need. Sure it would be nice to have access to the internet at all times on the iPod but seeing as I’m on a wireless network 90% of the time I think I’ll survive the other 10% without the access.

And that there is how I’m doing my part in not giving Rogers my $4,000 (give or take a bit) in iPhone and iPhone contracts. For the bit of inconvenience that the two devises will give me I think it’s worth it.

My friend Paul has written an excellent account of his day parading around some of the more interesting parts of Buffalo, New York. It’s nice to see that there’s some areas in Buffalo that aren’t rotting.

Check out the details of his adventure here.